Nomads of the Jungle - Malaya (1948)

[00:00:04]Far across the world where Southeastern Asia sticks a finger of mountainous land in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea lies the Malay Peninsula.

[00:00:14]Forest where these and heavy rains fall almost every day and thick vines and trees grow out of the rich earth.

[00:00:21]The people of the rainforest hunt its animals, fish in its many streams, and eat wild vegetables place to place in groups of families called nomads.

[00:00:31]They do not wear many clothes for the forest is hot and damp.

[00:00:40]All nomad groups have a leader.

[00:00:42]My father, Airin, is our chief.

[00:00:45]I am Airin, the son of the chief.

[00:00:50]Like all our women, Hamak, travel with us always for the jungle is our home.

[00:00:58]Whenever we can, we follow the rough trails made by wild animals. We keep close together for it is easy to get lost in the big forest. Most beasts of the jungle are afraid to attack people in groups.

[00:01:12]When moving to a new place to set up camp, we carry all our belongings and our pets.

[00:01:25]Sometimes we have to wade along a river bank or cut paths through the underbrush with our bush knives.

[00:01:42]My father searches for an open grassy space on the high ground called a savanna where camping will be easier than among jungle trees and vines.

[00:01:59]This place is well chosen.

[00:02:01]Water flows not far away, and as soon as the savanna grass is cut, bamboo, the most useful of our plants, can be brought from a nearby grove.

[00:02:14]Out of the leaves of palm trees, roofs are made to shelter us from the great rains of the forest and the heat of the sun.

[00:02:20]Our people work very hard.

[00:02:22]Everyone must help work if the camp is to be ready by nightfall.

[00:02:28]Our women weave the palm leaves into mats.

[00:02:31]My mother was first taught how to do this when she was younger than Kamak is now.

[00:02:48]I use the strands of a tough vine called rattan to tie the palm leaf mats to the bamboo frames of the roof.

[00:02:58]Other men split and unroll the hollow stems of bamboo to cover the platforms of our houses.

[00:03:06]These platforms are good beds and sitting places, keeping us from dampness and from snakes and other crawling things of the jungle.

[00:03:18]When the shelters are ready, the women begin to unpack.

[00:03:26]Except for knives and an iron kettle, almost everything our people use we have made ourselves.

[00:03:37]From the nearby jungle, the women gather wild vegetables for our dinner.

[00:03:48]The yam is the thick root of a plant very much like a potato.

[00:03:53]It tastes sweet when it is cooked, and we eat many yams.

[00:03:59]We have picked our camp near a river, so that water for cooking and drinking may be brought to us in pieces of bamboo sealed at one end.

[00:04:19]The water is kept in bamboo tanks. This saves many trips to the river.

[00:04:29]My grandmother threshes the rice we have gathered.

[00:04:40]She is old and funny in her ways, but she works as hard as the rest of us.

[00:04:48]My cousin, Sarka, helps shake the loose husks from the kernels.

[00:04:58]Very often we go to the stream for food.

[00:05:02]We splash the water to drive the fish upstream, where one boy waits with the net.

[00:05:40]We use the broad, thick leaves of the banana tree in almost as many ways as we do bamboo.

[00:06:06]As soon as my mother has cleaned the fish, my sister wraps it in a banana leaf.

[00:06:14]The heat of our jungle spoils food quickly unless it is kept cool in wet leaves.

[00:06:27]When all the food has been gathered, the women prepare dinner.

[00:06:31]My aunt makes bread from the soft inside of the palm tree.

[00:06:35]This has been mixed with water and made into dough.

[00:06:58]When she has wrapped it in a banana leaf, she slides the bread into a bamboo tube to be put on the fire to bake.

[00:07:07]We use not only the leaves and the fruit of the banana tree, but the blossoms as well.

[00:07:20]We cut off the outside petals.

[00:07:23]When the tender hearts are steamed, they make our favorite dessert. In ways like this, my people make the jungle serve them well.

[00:07:39]Sometimes the bamboo cooking pots scorch, but because they are green and damp, they never burn up.

[00:07:53]Almost every day the great thunderclouds shower rain upon us.

[00:07:58]All we do is carry our fires to shelter.

[00:08:01]If we get wet, the heat of the jungle dries us quickly.

[00:08:25]The sun shines again and dinner is ready.

[00:08:33]The bread made of the palm tree is taken out of its bamboo oven in banana leaf cover.

[00:08:39]This food we have gathered with our hands is good.

[00:09:04]My father passes the big fish on a banana leaf, and we eat it with our fingers as we have been taught to do.

[00:09:21]We haven't been able to teach the monkey to behave nicely.

[00:09:33]Near the equator, the sun sets quickly, and darkness drops all at once upon our jungle.

[00:09:39]Tomorrow, the men will go hunting.

[00:09:42]As some sing the old songs of my people, others cut blowgun darts from the hard veins of palm leaves.

[00:09:49]We coated the tips of the darts with paste made from the poisonous sap of the ipo tree.

[00:09:54]This paste makes it easier to capture the animals alive because it stuns them.

[00:10:10]During the long evening, the women of the family weave baskets in which someday soon we will carry the things of the jungle down the great river to the trading post.

[00:10:25]At the breaking of the day before going hunting, we clean and polish our blowguns.

[00:10:43]Then we test them with unpoisoned darts in a target made of a flower bud.

[00:10:47]Next to my father, the most important man among us is the best hunter, Tarka, who makes fun of me often, but is wise in jungle ways and skillful with his darts.

[00:11:00]>> [laughter] >> My father will help me to become a great hunter and to shoot straight that I too may be a chief.

[00:11:49]>> I walk behind my father when we go hunting.

[00:11:53]When we come to a river that is fat from too much rain, we build a bridge.

[00:12:09]The work, as always, is shared among us.

[00:12:12]Each man has been taught as a child to do his task well in the manner of our forefathers.

[00:12:23]First, we make the railings, then slice rattan to tie them down.

[00:12:30]I must work with the others, but harder and better, for I am the son of the chief and am watched by many eyes.

[00:12:44]We shall use this bridge often, as long as we can find food in this part of the forest.

[00:12:56]When we reach the hunting ground, we spread out.

[00:13:00]But we call to one another, for it is dangerous to be lost in the jungle.

[00:13:16]We imitate the cries of birds and animals to bring them close to us. We will not waste our darts.

[00:13:22]In this way do we go after the animals we The big monkey has been stunned by the poison of our darts. We must fetch her quickly lest the large beasts of the jungle snatch her away.

[00:13:46]We like to keep baby monkeys as pets, but we take some of them to the trading post where men buy them to send to far off lands.

[00:13:54]I myself shall take one to the trader who in return will give me goods from beyond our forest.

[00:14:20]Everyone in the jungle has been taught to make a simple bamboo cage for carrying small animals.

[00:14:36]The little monkey is afraid now because he does not know what will happen to him.

[00:15:08]The people who live in the outside world buy not only our wild animals and birds, but rattan which they use to make tables and chairs.

[00:15:31]>> Whenever the men have enough goods, they fasten together a bamboo raft and float these things down to the trading post.

[00:15:38]This time I shall go with them.

[00:16:14]It is a happy moment when we put the raft into the water.

[00:16:30]We shall use this raft only once, for the river flows too swiftly for us to return upstream, and we shall come home on foot.

[00:16:53]>> [crying] >> We drift down the river toward the trading post.

[00:17:20]Down the river to a place that is different from all the places I have ever seen before.

[00:17:25]Down until the river grows so very big that it could swallow all the rain that I have ever known and still be thirsty.

[00:17:41]In the afternoon, we take our goods off the raft.

[00:17:47]Outside the trading post, there are pack elephants which will later take the things of our jungle to the city by the sea.

[00:18:00]Outside world.

[00:18:09]The trader does not wander from place to place as do my people.

[00:18:13]He was born in one of the villages between the sea and our forest and knows the men who come from far away and the price they set on the products of the jungle.

[00:18:38]The trader does not pay us with money, with goods from the world beyond.

[00:18:42]We always need bush knives of sharp and glistening steel made in places called the United States and England.

[00:18:49]After the tools which help our work, is pleasing to our eyes.

[00:19:00]Some find it hard to choose. But I know what I want. Cutting cloth as bright as a rainbow for my mother. And a present for Kamak.

[00:19:17]>> Then it is time to go home.

[00:19:20]We left in the morning and the river carried us down here before the sun had set.

[00:19:24]But the trip homeward will take two long days over the wet trails of the jungle.

[00:19:50]My grandmother cannot wait for the cigarettes my father has brought her.

[00:19:57]It is a sign of manhood to make a long journey and come home with gifts.

[00:20:23]>> [laughter] >> My sister Kamak is growing up. She and I will live by the law our father has taught us. Which says we must all work together to make the most of the good things of the jungle.

[00:20:36]The law is well made.

[00:20:38]May it long be kept in our great rainforest.

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